Vegetarian Cookbook author on Thanksgiving

[Guest guest]

When I was a child, I thought all prayers and sacred behavior were

expressions of gratitude and appreciation for and about food.

Extrapolating from a Jewish prayer that literally thanked God for

bringing forth bread from the earth, I saw the deity as a humble

farmer – slim, unassuming– and even somewhat weary from tilling the

soil since dawn. I pictured our creator as an oldish man wearing blue

denim overalls and a plaid shirt as he quietly poked a pitchfork into

the ground and pulled up freshly baked loaves, ready to slice and

eat.

Concluding that God was in the business of providing food for all

people to eat, I understood that it made good sense for us to think

so highly of him and praise him regularly. Thus it was clear to me

from a very early age that for human beings to perform God's work on

this earth was a simple equation: Cook the good food that God brought

into existence, and feed it to ourselves and to others.

In my child–mind, the ordinary had somehow, in its unspoken way,

become extraordinary, just through awareness. I couldn't think of

anything more special – even though these sacred (to me) acts of

cooking and eating took place on a daily basis and most people seemed

to take the whole realm for granted. I never did.

 

-- Mollie Katzen author of the " Moosewood Cookbook, " " Enchanted

Broccoli Forest, " " Vegetable Heaven, " etc.